CHAPTER

14

THE LEAGUE

So much for parents and coaches. Let’s get to the association leadership – well-meaning folks who determine policies and settle issues that are critical to the kids’ and the coaches’ experience.

Much can go wrong at this level. Often, league organizers get wrapped up in the need to draft a charter for the league. A charter statement that points out how important and “feel good” sports should be.

A coaching friend told of the endless arguments over the “goal statement” for his league. Several people arguing for over an hour on two different occasions. What a waste of valuable time. Do we need a goal/charter statement for the organization? Sure, but go to the Internet, find a statement you like and adopt it. Then get on to the important stuff.

The league needs to have clear-cut policies about seven issues. In no particular order, the seven most important things league officials should do (in addition to getting good coaches) are:

Devise a method to purge the troublemakers from a team and the league.

Write a policy for balancing player playing time.

Write a policy for balancing team talent.

Manage kid “drop out.”

Determine whether the league is competitive and/or noncompetitive.

Hold training for the coaches.

Obtain facilities and set and publish the schedule early.

These and other policy/rules should be carefully considered and then written down and given to every coach. The coaches should be given enough copies for every family on their team and told to have a team meeting to hand them out.

The league shouldn’t expect the coaches to make copies. When coaches are given enough copies for the parents they will more likely hand them out, whether or not they see the wisdom in having a team meeting.

Some leagues require a parent to sign the policy/ rules and return a document to the league to assure they have been disseminated. When I see this done, I wonder how the administrators assure that the parents read the rules. Instead, require coaches to hold a team meeting and review the rules with the parents.

The need for addressing the first issue – purging troublemakers – is obvious. Yet it’s often ignored. Instead, the leagues rely on hope, as in “Let’s hope we won’t have this problem.”

The next three issues are important for obtaining “parity” in the league – a condition wherein each team has a roughly equal opportunity to win or lose. Parity also optimizes the importance of the coach. An outstanding coach can still win more than “their share.”

Competitive, noncompetitive or both is a very important decision for the league. The answer may require different rules – about playing time, for example –and those rules need some consideration, too. All rules and policies for both the competitive and noncompetitive aspects of the league should be drawn up before the season starts.

The training of coaches is very spotty by my experience. Many leagues do it well, others not at all. The same with facility selection and scheduling.

Of course, the league organizers may be volunteers, too, and their time, like the coaches’, is limited. So this discussion will address the optimum while realizing it may not be met. Use of this book should help with the limited time issue.